SAR:
A Versatile New Tool for Earth Science
Geoscientists are depending more and more on synthetic aperture radar's
all-weather, day and night capability  using it to map digital
topography, to study Earth as it moves and to detect and monitor floods,
oil spills or storm damage as quickly as possible. Rosalind T. Helz et al.

LIDAR:
Mapping a Shoreline by Laser Light
The days of collecting beach profile data solely in the field are gone.
Now coastal geologists are looking to the skies, using a new radar tool
to study changes to the shoreline over large areas. James C. Gibeaut

Precision
Agriculture: Changing the Face of Farming
Commercial farms around the world are changing, and remote sensing is
beginning to play a large role. A new suite of technologies promises to
help farmers better manage their crops at the scale of individual fields.Doug Rickman et al.

Political SceneOur Public Lands
Managing public access and wilderness protection on federal lands is one of
the most enduring policy-making challenges.Larry Kennedy

Geologic ColumnThe Romance of Geology in
Russia
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union was a vast expanse waiting to be explored. It
was geologists who took the call, traveling to the farthest reaches of the country
 inspiring a new generation of geological explorers.Paul Belasky

coverON
THE COVERThis shaded-relief and color-coded topographic
image shows a portion of Matagorda Island, Texas, off the coast of the Gulf of
Mexico. Elevation data were acquired by the University of Texas at Austin with
an airborne laser system, called LIDAR (light detection and ranging). Coastal
geologists are beginning to use this system to map historical shoreline change.
Read the story on tracking shoreline change.
Image courtesy of James Gibeaut.